Iraqi Says Visit by Two Diplomats Backfired
    By Kirk Semple
    The New York Times

    Thursday 06 April 2006

    Baghdad - A top adviser to Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said 0aWednesday that the visit this week by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice 0aand Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of Britain had backfired, prolonging a 0adeadlock over a new government and strengthening Mr. Jaafari's resolve to 0akeep his post.

    "Pressure from outside is not helping to speed up any solution," 0asaid the 0aadviser, Haider al-Abadi. "All it's doing is hardening the position of 0apeople who are supporting Jaafari."

    He added, "They shouldn't have come to Baghdad."

    His comments were echoed by several political leaders on Wednesday, 0aincluding Kurds and Sunni Arabs.

    Mr. Jaafari was nominated by the main Shiite political bloc in February 0ato 0abe prime minister in a new government. But the selection has faced fierce 0apublic resistance by a coalition of Sunni Arabs, Kurds, independents and 0asome Shiite leaders.

    The visit by Ms. Rice and Mr. Straw appeared to grate even on politicians 0awho oppose Mr. Jaafari. "They complicated the thing, and now it's more 0adifficult to solve," said Mahmoud Osman, an independent member of the 0aKurdistan Alliance, speaking Wednesday about Ms. Rice and Mr. Straw. "They 0ashouldn't have come, and they shouldn't have interfered."

    Also on Wednesday, an Iraqi cameraman employed by CBS and detained by 0aAmerican forces a year ago on suspicions of abetting the insurgency was 0aacquitted by a three-judge panel at the Central Criminal Court of Iraq in 0aBaghdad.

    On April 5, 2005, the cameraman, Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein, was shot 0ain 0athe hip by an American sniper while he was filming the wreckage of a car 0abomb that had wounded several American soldiers in Mosul.

    He was taken to a hospital where he was detained by the Americans. They 0asaid that he had tested positive for explosive residue and that images in 0ahis camera linked him to the insurgents.

    After a year in detention, his ordeal ended Wednesday just as suddenly 0aas 0ait had begun when a prosecutor requested that the case be dismissed for 0alack of evidence.

    He awaits final approval of his release by the American military, his 0alawyers said.

    "The mystery is why this case got referred to the court in the 0afirst 0aplace," Scott Horton, a lawyer from New York who flew to Baghdad to help 0adefend Mr. Hussein, said after the ruling. "It's intimidation and the 0apotential use of lethal force against journalists."

    Lt. Col. Keir-Kevin Curry, a spokesman for the military's detainee 0aoperations, said in an e-mail message that the Central Criminal Court was "still an evolving process."

    "At times cases may take longer than a year," he said. "Our 0agoal is to 0ahave everyone appear before an investigative judge within six months of 0adetention."

    In Baghdad, two car bombs detonated Wednesday afternoon within 20 minutes, 0akilling 3 people and wounding at least 16, an Interior Ministry official 0asaid.

    Gunmen wearing the uniforms of Interior Ministry commandos and driving 0aministry vehicles opened fire on guards outside the Baghdad headquarters 0aof the Iraqna cellular phone company, wounding a guard and then abducting 0ahim.

    An insurgent group posted a video on the Internet, claiming that it showed 0apeople dragging the burned body of an American pilot from an Apache 0ahelicopter that crashed southwest of Baghdad on Saturday.

    The military said Wednesday that it could not confirm the authenticity 0aof 0athe video.